The invention relates to a vehicle with a folding top with a flexible roof skin with a dimensionally stable rear window.
In a known convertible vehicle including a folding top with a flexible roof skin (such as described in German Auslegeschrift No. 11 79 125), the folding top is constructed essentially in mirror image fashion to a longitudinal median plane of the vehicle and is pivotally supported in a main bearing. The folding top has a frame which embraces a rear window and can be fixed in a closed position by means of a connecting rod. The folding top frame is connected in scissor fashion and shifted with the connecting rod horizontally to the folding top frame and subsequently can be swiveled into a folding top compartment in the vehicle. At the same time, the material of the folding top is subjected to additional stresses by folding, the horizontal displacement requires an essentially vertically extending rear window and, during the closing process, the lower edge region of the rear window must be brought from the inside to the edge of the car body, so that an expensive control system is required in order to avoid leaks.
The present invention is concerned with the problem of providing a convertible vehicle of the type discussed above and having a rear window holding device which can be adapted to an aerodynamically flat folding top contour and can be swiveled without additional expense for a driving mechanism and for controls. Further, it is provided that the material of the folding top experiences only slight folding motions during the swiveling movement and a reliably tight closure at the car body side is achieved at little cost.
In the convertible vehicle in accordance with the invention, the rear window is held on three sides in a frame and is supported in the region of its lower transverse side edge directly on the clamping collar of the folding top. The clamping collar forms, together with the frame, a rack part which can be shifted as a one-part structural unit. Since the transverse side edge of the rear window extends down to the bow-shaped partial region of the structural unit, the total area of the rear window is enlarged advantageously in the downward direction and, as a result, the view through the rear region of the convertible vehicle is improved as a whole, even for vehicles with an aerodynamically flat folding top contour.
The rear window or the rear window together with the frame part is integrated as a structural unit in the folding top cloth or skin such that, when the folding top is moved into the open or closed position, effective folding top cloth stresses in the roof skin are distributed optimally by the dimensionally stable construction of the structural unit and overloading is prevented. With this configuration of the rear region of the folding top, different requirements for the design and the aerodynamic configuration of the contour of vehicles can be met with little effort even if the overall height of the vehicle is low.
The structural unit, formed in one piece from the frame and the clamping collar for the folding top, can be integrated with little technical effort into the kinematic concept of the folding top frame and, together with the roof skin of the folding top, can be deposited in a folding top compartment at the rear of the vehicle. A particularly stable and pivotable support of the frame unit is achieved because the upper part of the frame unit interacts with respective linkage parts of the folding top and the lower bow-shaped side struts of the structural unit are supported pivotably in the region of the main bearing arranged on the body of the vehicle by appropriate supporting connectors. In this region, a support with an adjustable height may also be provided.
The pivotable frame unit acts together with a rear folding top compartment lid which, in the closed position, can be placed from above onto the basic strut or the side legs of the frame such that, with little control effort, a reliably tight closure to the interior of the car body is attained.
With regard to further details and advantageous development of the invention, reference is made to the following description and the drawings, in which the convertible vehicle in accordance with the invention with a one-piece structural unit is described in greater detail by way of an example.